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Argosy Aerial - Palmerston North

Description: This aerial is believed to depict streets surrounding the Palmerton North Hospital complex (at left). Ross Intermediate can be seen in the upper left, with Papaioea Park on the opposite diagonal, and Featherston Street running between them. Also visible are Rangiora Avenue in the upper right and Heretaunga Street across the bottom right corner.

Argosy Studio (Argos Industrial Photos) was a photography business owned and operated between 1950 and 1980 by Joe Greening (formerly employed by Elmar Studios). Originally located in Broadway, Argosy later moved to Cuba Street on the corner with Lombard Street.

As well as commissioned work (such as photographing the old railyards or aerial shots for the Council) Greening was known to operate as a street photographer, capturing the likenesses of passersby, offering his card with the negative number so they could buy the image if they wished. Many of these images will be in family photo albums.

A fire in 1965 destroyed many negatives in Argosy's collection but this image was one of the 400 or so survivors. Greening donated many of these surviving images to the Ian Matheson City Archives in 1989 before retiring to Kaitaia. He died in 2001.